Tackling social exclusion is both a local and national challenge. The government has shown its commitment through its Social Exclusion Unit and Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy and many local authorities have followed suit by producing their own Social Inclusion strategies..

The government’s says:

'Social exclusion is a shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown’.

‘In the past governments have had policies that tried to deal with each of these problems individually, but there has been little success at tackling the complicated links between them or preventing them from arising in the first place’. (Cabinet Office, Social Exclusion Unit leaflet, July 2000)